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Liars are always most disposed to swear.
[It., A giurar presti i mentitor son sempre.]
Author: Vittorio Alfieri
Source: Virginia (II, 3)
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But that he wrought so high the specious tale,
As manifested plainly 'twas a lie.
[Lat., Se non volea pulir sua scusa tanto,
Che la facesse di menzogna rea.]
Author: Ludovico Ariosto
Source: Orlando Furioso (XVIII, 84)
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And none speaks false, when there in none to hear.
Author: James Beattie
Source: The Minstrel (bk. II, st. 24)
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I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted:
I said in my haste, All men are liars.
Author: Bible
Source: Psalms (ch. CXVI, v. 11)
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Resolved to die in the last dyke of prevarication.
Author: Edmund Burke
Source: Impeachment of Warren Hastings
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Quoth Hudibras, I smell a rat;
Ralpho, thou dost prevaricate.
Author: Samuel Butler (1)
Source: Hudibras (pt. I, canto I, l. 821)
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I tell him, if a clergyman, he lies!
If captains the remark, or critics, make,
Why they lie also--under a mistake.
Author: Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron)
Source: Don Juan
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And, after all, what is a lie? 'Tis but
The truth in masquerade.
Author: Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron)
Source: Don Juan (canto XI, st. 37)
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You lie--under a mistake--
For this is the most civil sort of lie
That can be given to a man's face, I now
Say what I think.
Author: Pedro Calderon de la Barca
Source: El Magico Prodigioso (sc. 1), translation by Shelley
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So near is falsehood to truth that a wise man would do well not
to trust himself on the narrow edge.
[Lat., Ita enim finitima sunt falsa veris ut in praecipitem locum
non debeat se sapiens committere.]
Author: Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero)
Source: Academici (IV, 21)
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A liar is not believed even though he tell the truth.
[Lat., Mendaci homini ne verum quidem dicenti credere solemus.]
Author: Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero)
Source: De Divinatione (II, 71)
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A good memory is needed once we have lied.
[Fr., Il faut bonne memoire apres qu'on a menti.]
Author: Pierre Corneille
Source: Le Menteur (IV, 5)
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A liar is always lavish of oaths.
[Fr., Un menteur est toujours prodigue de serments.]
Author: Pierre Corneille
Source: Le Menteur (IV, 5)
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Some truth there was, but dash'd and brew'd with lies,
To please the fools, and puzzle all the wise.
Author: John Dryden
Source: Absalom and Achitophel
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When I err every one can see it, but not when I lie.
[Ger., Wenn ich irre kann es jeder bemerken; wenn ich luge,
nicht.]
Author: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Source: Spruche in Prosa (III)
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As ten millions of circles can never make a square, so the united
voice of myriads cannot lend the smallest foundation to
falsehood.
Author: Oliver Goldsmith
Source: Vicar of Wakefield (vol. II, ch. VIII)
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Dare to be true: nothing can need a lie;
A fault which needs it most, grows two thereby.
Author: George Herbert
Source: Church Porch
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Halfe the world knowes not how the other halfe lies.
Author: George Herbert
Source: Jacula Prudentum
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Shew me a lyer, and I'le shew thee a theefe.
[Show me a liar, and I'll show thee a thief.]
Author: George Herbert
Source: Jacula Prudentum
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Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle that fits the all.
Author: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Source: Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (VI)
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Who dares think one thing, and another tell,
My heart detests him as the gates of hell.
Author: Homer ("Smyrns of Chios")
Source: The Iliad (bk. IX, l. 412), (Pope's translation)
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Urge him with truth to frame his fair replies;
And sure he will; for wisdom never lies.
Author: Homer ("Smyrns of Chios")
Source: The Odyssey (bk. III, l. 25), (Pope's translation)
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For my part getting up seems not so easy
By half as lying.
Author: Thomas Hood
Source: Morning Meditations
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Splendidly mendacious.
[Lat., Splendide mendax.]
Author: Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Source: Carmina (III, 11, 35)
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Round numbers are always false.
Author: Samuel Johnson
Source: Johnsoniana--Apothegms, Sentiment, etc., From Hawkin's Collective Addition
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Why would anyone lie? The truth is always more colorful.
Author: James Hall
Source: None
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All men are born truthful and die liars.
Author: Vauvenargues
Source: None
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A little inaccuracy sometimes saves a lot of explanations.
Author: Saki
Source: None
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A lie with a purpose is one of the worst kind, and the most profitable.
Author: Josh Billings
Source: None
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I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy.
Author: Samuel Butler
Source: None
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One ought to have a good memory when he has told a lie.
Author: Corneille
Source: None
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One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat only has nine lives.
Author: Finley Peter Dunne
Source: None
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Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies.
Author: Oliver Goldsmith
Source: None
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Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle that fits them all.
Author: Oliver Wendell Holmes
Source: None
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There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it.
Author: William James
Source: None
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A man would rather have a hundred lies told of him than one truth which he does not wish should be known.
Author: Samuel Johnson
Source: None
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The truth that survives is simply the lie that is pleasantest to believe.
Author: H. L. Mencken
Source: None
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A liar should have a good memory.
Author: Quintilian
Source: None
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A liar begins with making falsehood appear like truth and ends with making truth itself appear like falsehood.
Author: William Shenstone
Source: None
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A lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies.
Author: Alfred Lord Tennyson
Source: None
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Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.
Author: Samuel Butler
Source: None
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The liar's punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.
Author: George Bernard Shaw
Source: None
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You can best reward a liar by believing nothing of what he says.
Author: Aristippus
Source: None
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We payt a person the complement of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him.
Author: Samuel Butler
Source: None
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There are a terrible lot of lies going round the world, and the worst of it is that they're true.
Author: Winston Churchill
Source: None
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The cruelest lies are often told in silence.
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Source: None
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He who tells a lie is not sensible of how great a task he undertakes; for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one.
Author: Alexander Pope
Source: None
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Never chase a lie. Let it alone, and it will run itself to death. I can work out a good character much faster than anyone can lie me out of it.
Author: Lyman Beecher
Source: None
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It takes a wise man to handle a lie. A fool had better remain honest.
Author: Norman Douglas
Source: None
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It is hard to tell if a man is telling the truth when you know you would lie if you were in his place.
Author: H.l. Mencken
Source: None
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